THE  RESTLESS  EVE  AND  NOT  THE  INDOLENT 
ADAM  IS  THE  PARENT  OF  CIVILIZATION 


THE  WOMEN'S  UPRISING 


JENK1N  LLOYD  JONES 


The  Women's  Uprising 

A  SERMON  CF  THE 

Women's  Congress  held  in  Chicago 
May  15=21,  1893 

BY 
Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones 


}Vhat  is  civilization? 

I  answer,  the  power  of  good  woman. 

— Emerson. 


Unity  Publishing  Company 


Chicago,  1893 


COPYRIGHT,  1893 

BY 
THE  AUTHOR 


Metcalf  Stationery  Co.,  Printers 
Chicago 


•Co 

JBertba  Ibonore'jpalmer 

"BO bo  rranslatec>  Social  ^forces  into  flDoral  Progress 


THE  KING'S  DAUGHTER. 


She  wears  no  jewel  upon  hand  or  brow; 

No  badge  by  whiqh  she  may  be  known  of  men . 
But  though  she  walk  in  plain  attire  now, 

She  is  a  daughter  of  the  King;  and  when 
Her  father  calls  her  at  his  throne  to  wait, 
She  will  be  clothed  as  doth  befit  her  state. 

Her  Father  sent  her  in  his  land  to  dwell, 
Giving  to  her  a  work  that  must  be  done. 

And  since  the  King  loves  all  his  people  well, 
Therefore,  she,  too,  cares  for  them  every  one. 

Thus  when  she  stoops  to  lift  from  want  or  sin, 

The  brighter  shines  her  royalty  therein. 

She  walks  erect  through  dangers  manifold, 
While  many  sink  and  fail  on  either  hand. 

She  dreads  not  summer's  heat  nor  winter's  cold, 
For  both  are  subject  to  the  King's  command. 

She  need  not  be  afraid  of  anything, 

Because  she  is  a  daughter  of  the  King. 

Even  when  the  angel  comes  that  men  call  Death, 
And  name  with  terror,  it  appalls  not  her. 

She  turns  to  look  at  him,  with  quickened  breath, 
Thinking,  "It  is  the  royal  messenger." 

Her  heart  rejoices  that  her  Father  calls 

Her  back  to  live  within  the  palace  walls. 

For  though  the  land  she  dwells  in  is  most  fair, 
Set  round  with  streams,  like  pictures  in  its  frame, 

Yet  often  in  her  heart  deep  longings  are 
For  "that  imperial  palace  whence  she  came." 

Not  perfect  quite  seems  any  earthly  thing, 

Because  she  is  a  daughter  of  the  King. 

— Rebecca  Utler. 


The  Women's  Uprising. 


And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good 
for  food,  and  that  it  was  a  delight  to  the  eyes,  and  that 
the  tree  was  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise,  she  took 
of  the  fruit  thereof,  and  did  eat;  and  she  gave  also  unto 
her  husband  with  her.  and  he  did  eat.  And  the  eyes 
of  them  both  were  opened. 

—Genesis  III:  6,  7. 

History  has  proved  a  better  comment  upon  my 
text  than  theology.  Facts  have  changed  the 
reproach  into  a  compliment.  The  church  has 
been  unkind  to  Mother  Eve  as  she  is  described  in 
this  idyl  of  Hebrew  poetry,  this  poem  of  creation, 
born  out  of  a  heart  untutored  by  science  but 
instructed  by  reverence.  As  philosophy  these 
Genesis  stories  are  weak  and  childish,  but  as 
material  for  the  philosopher,  they  are  suggestive 
and  valuable.  Instead  of  blaming  poor  Eve,  the 
inexperienced,  unguided,  and  uncompanioned 
primitive  mother,  for  laying  hold  of  the  fruit  of 
that  tree  of  knowledge  which  was  '  'good  for  food 
and  a  delight  to  the  eyes,"  we  should  rather 
profoundly  thank  her,  for  in 'that  violation  was 


6  The  Women' s  Uprising 

growth.  The  restless  Eve  and  not  the  indolent 
Adam,  is  the  parent  of  civilization,  and  should 
become  the  symbol  of  human  triumph,  the  em- 
blem of  the  human  soul.  I  said  ' '  uncompanioned' ' 
Eve;  for  the  writer  of  this  story  reflects  the  error 
of  the  generations  as  regards  woman.  Man 
needed  a  companion,  and  the  Lord  God  builded 
out  of  his  rib  a  woman  that  he  might  not  be 
solitary.  But  it  does  not  appear  that  it  ever 
occured  either  to  the  creative  mind  or  the  created 
man  that  this  woman  herself  might  occasionally 
be  a  little  lonely;  that  this  companion  must  needs 
be  companioned,  if  not  by  man,  for  whose  side 
she  was  created,  then  by  any  serpent  that  might 
have  a  word  to  say  or  a  thought  to  give.  In  this 
respect,  too,  the  poem  has  reflected  history.  In 
the  earlier  stages  of  human  society  woman  was 
booty  to  be  captured,  a  commodity  to  be  bought 
and  sold,  a  trophy  of  war.  Jacob  had  to  work 
fourteen  years  in  order  to  purchase  the  woman 
he  prized.  The  Roman  law  gave  absolute  power 
to  the  husband  over  the  woman  he  married,  even 
the  right  in  some  cases,  according  to  Lecky,  of 
putting  her  to  death ;  while  Mahafly  tells  us  how 
Greek  writers  upheld  "the  complete  seclusion  and 
insignificance  of  woman."  Thucydides  wrote, 
"She  was  best  who*  was  least  spoken  of  among 
men  whether  for  good  or  evil." 


The  Women' s  Uprising  7 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  trace  the  gradual 
change  of  sentiment  concerning  woman,  or  to 
indicate  her  slow  escape  from  bondage  toward 
freedom,  dependence  toward  independence,  from 
subordination  toward  something  like  aggressive 
assumption  and  persuasive  tyranny  in  many 
directions.  I  would  rather  start  with  the  recent 
demonstration  of  this  change  in  woman's  estate 
and  gather  a  few  lessons  therefrom. 

It  is  the  time  for  superlatives  in  Chicago.  Not 
local  pride  or  western  inflation,  but  the  sober 
facts  scientifically  studied,  necessitate  the  use  of 
the  superlative  degree  in  many  directions  in  these 
days.  It  is  true  that  some  things  have  happened 
that  never  happened  before.  Some  things  have 
been  accomplished  in  Chicago  that  never  have 
been  accomplished  elsewhere,  and  to  fail  to  rec- 
ognize these  facts  is  to  lose  a  certain  opportunity, 
is  to  court  stupidity  and  not  modesty.  The 
Columbian  Exposition  has  been  unparalled  on 
many  lines.  In  regard  to  the  magnificence  of  its 
buildings  and  their  gracious  groupings,  the 
triumph  of  modern  invention,  the  extent  of  its 
accomplishment  and  in  many  more  respects,  it  is 
proper  to  use  the  superlative  degree. 

Hamilton  Mabie,  the  assistant  editor  of  the 
Christian  Union,  in  his  editorial  correspondence 
in  that  paper,  comparing  the  Chicago  Exposition 


8  The  Women  s  Uprising 

with  that  held  in  Paris  in  1889,  says:  "The  one 
in  Paris  represented  a  great  past;  the  one  in 
Chicago  seems  like  a  vision  of  the  future.  The 
one  was  a  visible  summing  up  of  what  has  been 
done;  the  other  a  prediction  of  things  yet  to  be 
accomplished.  The  first  was  a  realization  ;  the 
second  is  a  prophecy.  It  is  less  ripe  and  far  more 
beautiful  than  the  Paris  Fair. ' '  The  accomplished 
editor  is  speaking  of  the  exhibits  at  Jackson  Park. 
But  more  prophetic  than  the  Electricity  building 
itself,  which  was  the  most  tangible  bit  of  the 
the  twentieth  century  found  in  the  World's  Fair, 
were  the  exhibitions  of  mind  which  for  six 
months  were  presented  down  town  in  the  Art 
Palace  on  the  lake  front.  Perhaps  it  will  yet 
appear  that  the  most  marvelous  thing  in  all  these 
marvelous  months  was  the  fact  that  right  along- 
side of  all  the  brilliant  attractions  and  tinseled 
distractions  of  Jackson  Park  and  the  Plaisance,  it 
was  possible  to  carry  on  great  systems  of  con- 
gresses attended  by  great  multitudes,  addressed 
by  representative  minds  from  all  quarters  of  the 
globe.  Let  the  world  take  note  that  in  this  city, — 
new  child  of  a  new  age, — the  attractions  of 
mind  successfully  competed  with  the  attractions 
of  things..  Ideas  stood  side  by  side  with  inven- 
tions in  Chicago  and  neld  their  own.  There  were 
plenty  of  people  who  preferred  to  see  a  live  man 


The  Women  s  Uprising  9 

or  a  live  woman  rather  than  the  best  pictures  that 
the  art  galleries  at  Jackson  Park  could  boast. 

Not  until  years  have  elapsed  will  the  full  signi- 
ficance of  the  great  congresses  which  1893  wit- 
nessed in  Chicago  be  appreciated.  It  will  take 
years  before  the  real  contribution  to  human 
thought,  to  social  and  to  intellectual  progress 
made  by  these  assemblies  can  be  estimated. 

After  the  great  triumph  of  the  Parliament  of 
Religions,  the  most  significant  thing  in  the  story 
of  these  congresses  is  the  fact  that  they  were 
inaugurated  by  women;  that  for  the  week  begin- 
ning May  15,  the  great  building  on  the  lake 
front,  with  its  two  halls  seating  three  thousand 
people  each,  and  its  twenty-eight  or  thirty  smaller 
halls  and  committee-rooms,  was  thronged  by 
women  day  and  evening  for  seven  days.  Clarence 
Young,  the  Secretary  of  the  Auxiliary  Congresses, 
estimated  that  there  were  ten  thousand  people, 
most  of  whom  were  women,  in  the  building  at 
one  time.  These  women  were  literally  gathered 
from  all  parts  of  the  globe.  England,  France, 
Germany,  Italy,  Denmark,  Belgium  and  Aus- 
tralia, Spain  and  Greece,  and  many  other  countries 
were  represented  by  the  spoken  voice  of  their 
own  daughters.  Sixty-three1  different  national 
organizations  of  women  we're  represented.  The 
newspapers  estimated  that  one  hundred  and  fifty 


io  The  Women's  Uprising 

different  meetings  were  held.  Thirty-seven  dif- 
ferent topics,  the  papers  said,  were  arranged  for 
the  central  congress  itself,  which  held  its  meet- 
ings in  the  main  hall.  The  capacity  of  our  great 
dailies  was  wholly  inadequate  to  report  the 
meetings.  As  I  said,  it  may  be  years  before  the 
history  of  this  Woman's  Congress  can  be  approxi- 
mately written;  much  of  it  never  will  be  written. 
Many  of  the  best  things  said  and  done  have  passed 
into  that  safe  treasury  of  the  human  soul  where 
forgotten  things  are  preserved  in  lives  made 
better;  preserved  in  minds  quickened  and  hearts 
softened.  But  enough  is  known  to  show  that  the 
women  of  the  world  in  this  last  decade  of  the 
nineteenth  century  came  promptly  to  the  front, 
and,  in  the  main,  trippingly  and  confidently  spoke 
their  thoughts  upon  all  the  great  questions  that 
have  ever  engaged  human  thought.  Life,  death 
and  immortality  were  included  in  their  themes; 
anything  from  metaphysics  to  cooking;  every- 
thing from  the  philosophy  of  languages  to  foot- 
wear; everything  from  the  salvation  of  souls  to 
the  training  of  flowers,  was  discussed.  All  the 
interests,  social,  moral  arrd  physical,  of  men, 
\vornen,  children  and  animals  were  touched.  The 
women  now  flocked  severally,  each  kind  by  them- 
selves, the  Catholic  women  here,  the  Mormon 
women  there,  and  the  Unitarian  yonder,  with  all 


The  Women 's  Uprising  1 1 

shades  of  orthodoxy  and  heresy  fitted  in  between. 
And  then  they  flocked  promiscuously, — all  creeds 
and  nationalities,  women  who  dared  and  those 
who  did  not  dare  so  much,  mingling  like  the 
members  of  Barnum's  happy  family  in  a  peace 
that  was  rather  strained  and  uncertain. 

The  first  thought  of  all  this  is  the  one  which  I 
hope  will  be  the  permanent  one, — how  splendid 
it  all  was  !  What  a  manifestation  of  power, 
unexpected,  unanticipated.  These  women  arose 
in  their  uncounted  might  like  a  great  volunteer 
army.  They  came  out  of  their  seclusion;  shop, 
school-room  and  kitchen  sent  forth  their  repre- 
sentatives. Ladj-  Aberdeen,  speaking  for  Eng- 
land, intimated  that  all  this  organic  life  is  a 
matter  of  the  last  five  years  among  her  country- 
women. That  many-armed  and  many-voiced 
congress  itself  was  the  work  of  less  than  a  year's 
activity.  These  meetings  were  a  stupendous 
illustration  of  nature's  tendency  to  variation.  I 
doubt  if  ever  before  was  presented  at  one  time 
and  one  place  such  a  concentration  of  radical 
force,  of  defiance  to  old  standards,  independence 
of  conventional  limitation.  Eve  at  last  demanded 
a  recognition.  Nay,  she  came  to  Chicago  and 
commanded  recognition.  She  no  longer  remained 
silent  under  the  humilating  insinuations  of  her 
lordly  Adam.  Paul's  injunction  to  keep  silent 


12  The  Women's  Uprising 

was  set  aside.  Even  Jesus's  "Woman,  what 
have  I  to  do  with  thee?"  received  the  belated 
rejoinder,  "You  have  much  to  do  with  me.  I, 
woman  and  mother,  hold  the  destinies  of  the 
future  in  my  hand,  and  I  propose  to  be  loyal  to 
my  obligations,  and,  God  helping,  to  make  myself 
more  worthy  of  the  task. ' '  How  these  women 
lawyers,  women  doctors,  women  bankers,  women 
authorities  on  the  turf,  women  experts  in  farming, 
fishing  and  preaching,  would  have  startled  the 
good  mothers  of  even  fifty  3'ears  ago.  How  they 
disprove  the  "dependent  creature"  and  "clinging 
vine"  theory  of  their  fathers  of  less  than  fifty 
years  ago.  We  who  believe  that  there  is  no  sex 
in  crime,  that  men  and  women  should  be  held 
equally  responsible  for  their  deeds,  who  believe 
that  there  ought  to  be  no  sex  in  the  intellect,  that 
brain  of  man  and  woman  should  be  trained  to  its 
maximum,  that  power  is  to  be  sought  by  one  as  by 
the  other,  and  is  within  reach  of  the  one  as  of  the 
other;  we  who  believe  in  the  ministrations  of 
reason,  must  take  courage  and  rejoice  over  this 
great,  surprising  and  successful  uprising  of  women 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  if  for  no  other  reason 
than  because  we  think  that  good  bread,  like 
Opie'  s  paints,  must  needs  be  '  'mixed  with  brains. ' ' 
It  takes  intellect  to  make  conscience,  and  a  strong 
mind  is  necessary  to  a  strong  will.  The  heart  is 


The  Women' s  Uprising  13 

kept  pure  by  knowledge  and  not  by  ignorance. 
Love  is  safe  where  judgment  is  active  ;  and  even 
the  deep  affections  of  the  heart  are  legitimate  and 
safe  subjects  of  study.  And  so  I  rejoice  in  these 
congresses.  I  glory  in  these  women  triumphs. 
As  I  saw  sitting  on  the  platform  the  brave  vet- 
erans in  this  woman's  movement  towards  the 
full  stature  of  womanhood,  women  whose  faces 
were  seamed  wTith  the  reforming  toil  of  a  genera- 
tion, in  whose  eyes  still  lingered  some  of  those 
flashes  of  light  kindled  in  the  old  days  of  cruel 
opposition  and  coarse  resentment,  the  tears  came 
unbidden.  As  I  thought  how  Susan  B.  Anthony, 
Lucy  Stone  and  others  would  join  with  Julia 
Ward  Howe  in  singing: 

"Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord, 
His  truth  goes  marching  on," 

and  listened  to  the  many  well-balanced  senten- 
ces, the  poised  tones,  the  kindly  accents  and 
ripe  thoughts,  I  saw  with  the  woman  of  the 
Genesis  story  "  that  the  tree  was  good  for  food, 
that  it  was  a  delight  to  the  eyes,  and  that  the  tree 
was  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise, ' '  and  I  was 
glad  "she  took  the  fruit  thereof  and  did  eat." 

But  we  render  poor  homage  to  these  workers 
when  we  speak  only  words  of  praise  and  approval. 
These  sisters  deserve  more  than  compliment  at  the 


14  The  Worn en 's  Uprising 

hands  of  their  fellow- workers.  It  is  well  for  them 
and  us  to  remember  that  "one  swallow  does  not 
make  a  summer;"  no  more  does  one  week  of  ova- 
tion and  an  uncritical  and  uncriticised  triumph 
bring  the  millenium.  These  good  sisters  revealed 
some  things  they  had  vowed  never  to  tell.  The 
keen  observer  could  read  between  the  lines  some 
things  the>T  would  have  given  worlds  to  con- 
ceal. Even  their  love-pleading  words  were  some- 
times spoken  by  lips  that  showed  the  hardened 
lines  of  ambition  and  self-seeking.  Faces  some- 
times neutralized  the  high  utterances,  and  conceit 
put  a  false  bottom  into  what  otherwise  might  have 
been  profound.  There  was  too  much  fluent 
speaking  unaccompanied  by  deep  thinking  and 
high  living.  Everything  said  without  breaking 
down  was  not  necessarily  worth  saying.  The 
leaders  in  this  first  great  international  triumph 
suffered  from  a  too  easy  standard  of  excellence. 
They  had  no  adequate  background  against  which 
their  performance  could  be  measured.  The  ex- 
periences of  the  women's  congress  week  made 
thoughtful  and  solicitous  the  best  friends  of  this 
magnificent  uprising.  Self-consciousness  and 
self-seeking  are  as  bad  in  women  as  in  men,  and 
no  worse.  And  the  mingling  of  outward  ''style" 
with  sense,  prudence  and  prophecy,  to  be  seen  at 
the  women's  congress  was  pathetic.  It  was  sad 


The  Women's  Uprising  15 

to  listen  to  brave*  challenges  from  enslaved  spirits, 
bound  by  tradition  and  fashion  to  an  extent  they 
did  not  dream  of.  The  newspaper  reports  of  these 
congresses  would  have  been  humorous  had  they 
not  been  so  sad.  The  speakers'  dresses  and  their 
words  were  jumbled  together  in  a  curious  way. 
It  was  often  hard  to  tell  whether  the  speaker  had 
studied  her  speech  or  her  costume  more  carefully. 
It  was  sometimes  even  doubtful  which  was  receiv- 
ing the  most  attention  at  the  moment  of  delivering 
the  address.  The  costly  receptions,  costly  in 
money,  but  far  more  costly  in  time,  in  strength 
and  in  sense,  cheapened  the  intellectual  and  moral 
life  of  woman's  week.  They  showed  that  woman 
is  yet  but  half  emancipated  and  how  utterly  incom- 
petent she  will  be  to  assume  the  leadership  she 
affects  until  she  has  escaped  from  the  toils  of  the 
dress-maker,  and  risen  above  that  survival  of 
barbarism  which  revels,  in  bangles  and  insults  the 
God-given  grace  of  her  matchless  body  with 
over-ornamentation.  What  vulgarity  was  dis- 
played in  the  long  columns  of  the  newspapers 
that  reported  with  technical  accuracy  the  dresses 
of  the  ladies  who  graced  this  reception  or  that 
during  congress  week. 

Not  to  dwell  too  long  upon  this  ungracious  task 
of  criticism,  let  it  be  said  that  this  congress  of 
women  was  itself  a  transitional  event.  Taken  on 


1 6  The  Women 's  Uprising 

long  historic  lines,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  this  great 
uprising  of  ten  thousand  women  from  remote 
parts  of  the  globe  represents  women  mid-way 
between  the  harem  and  the  senatorial  chamber. 
On  the  one  hand  these  women  were  held  down  by 
the  conservative  hand  of  conventional  propriety, 
of  dependent  obligations  to  artificial  standards 
which  were  framed  when  might  made  right,  and 
wrhen  man,  exercising  his  might,  used  woman  to 
his  pleasure  and  to  her  degradation.  On  the 
other  hand  she  was  lured  forward  by  the  beckon- 
ing hand  which  says,  "Come  up  higher.  Let 
your  soul  shine  through  the  flesh  and  make  it 
beautiful  beyond  the  power  of  gems  to  decorate. 
Let  the  brain  fill  every  nerve  with  the  fire  of 
thought,  and  the  eye  will  become  brighter  than 
any  stone  the  lapidary  may  cut."  The  eyes  of 
the  women  are  turned  forward,  but  they  are 
still  handicapped  in  the  race.  They,  as  well  as 
the  men,  have  yet  to  learn  the  gospel  of  sim- 
plicity, outward  and  inward.  Society  must  cease 
to  be  the  tyrant  that  makes  such  cruel  exactions 
upon  the  purses  and  strength  of  women.  I  know 
of  but  one  thing  that  seems  to  me  more  foreign  to 
the  true  inspirations  of  this  industrial,  demo- 
cratic, rational  and  religious  age  than  the  average 
gathering  of  society  women,  dressed,  not  as  of  old 
to  court  the  smiles  of  men,  but  for  the  less  inspir- 


The  Women'1  s  Uprising  17 

ing,  less  excusable,  and  far  more  exacting  and 
costly  modern  purpose  of  rousing  the  admiration 
or  the  envf  of  one  another.  These  dresses, 
elongated  at  the  end  where  drapery  becomes  a 
fetter  and  abridged  at  the  end  where  drapery 
belongs  as  gracious  protection,  are  incompatible 
with  that  normal  womanhood  that  now  asks  for  a 
place  among  the  toilers  of  the  world,  among  those 
who,  if  they  do  not  by  use  of  hand  and  brain 
add  to  the  material  wealth  of  the  world  and 
secure  their  own  physical  well-being,  are  in  a  high 
and  true  sense  still  toilers,  because  with  mind 
and  heart  they  enlarge  the  boundaries  of  thought, 
widen  the  horizons  of  love,  ameliorate  the  miseries 
of  the  world.  That  other  one  thing  alluded  to 
more  foreign  than  this  to  the  highest  inspirations 
of  our  times,  is  the  gathering  of  men  around  the 
modern  banquet  board,  where,  in  the  name  of 
hospitality,  at  reckless  expenditure  of  money  and 
strength  they  begin  the  feast  amid  the  flowers 
and  end  it  hours  afterwards  in  clouds  of  smoke 
made  heavy  with  wine  fumes. 

This  leads  me  to  the  most  important  lesson  of 
the  women's  congress.  Woman  at  last  has  dared 
to  partake  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge 
and  has  found  that  it  is  "good  for  food."  Now 
let  her  follow  the  example  of  Eve,  and  give  it 
also  unto  her  husband  that  the  eyes  of  both  of 


1 8  The  Women's  Uprising 

them  may  be  opened,  that  they  may  know  their 
nakedness,  and  together  they  may  clothe  them- 
selves and  enter  into  life's  struggle *to  win  that 
Eden  yet  to  be,  the  Kden  of  mutual  equality  in 
the  home  and  in  the  state.  Once  Adam  awoke  to  a 
sense  of  his  loneliness  and  yearned  for  a  compan- 
ion; the  day  has  come  when  woman,  wrho  here  in 
America  to-day  belongs  to  the  more  favored  class 
of  society  and  occupies  the  vantage  ground,  must 
awake  to  the  sense  that  it  is  not  good  for  her  to 
be  alone  in  the  intellectual  realms  of  life,  not  good 
to  be  alone  in  the  struggle  for  advancement  and 
reform.  Nay,  let  her  realize  that  it  is  not  right 
for  her  to  be  alone.  The  woman  must  not  let 
the  man  lag  behind;  she  must  reach  down  and 
lift  up  her  brother,  reach  back  and  pull  forward 
her  husband  and  speed  the  halting  steps  of  father. 
I  know  that  man  has  set  a  sorry  example.  *  If  it 
were  a  tit-for-tat  game,  woman  would  be  justified 
in  climbing  to  the  box  of  the  coach,  seizing  the 
reins  and  proceeding  to  drive  for  the  next  century, 
making  man  open  the  gates  and  water  the  horses 
while  she  does  the  driving;  letting  man  earn  the 
money  while  she  spends  it,  letting  man  build 
the  house  which  she  will  manage.  For  this  kind 
of  thing  woman  is  developing  splendid  aptitude; 
but  a  finer  tissue  has  been  woven  into  the  nature 
of  the  woman  of  the  nineteenth  century  than  was 


The  Women" s  Uprising  19 

put  into  the  masculine  fabric  of  the  dark  ages. 
Woman  is  not  going  to  do  so  cruel  and  selfish  a 
thing  as  to^say,  is  it  "my  turn  now;"  but  by 
the  power  of  thought  she  is  going  to  ensphere 
man's  life  with  an  atmosphere  of  love.  Man  still 
confronts  the  inhospitable  elements,  his  strong 
arms  are  still  battling  with  want,  hunger  and 
cold;  and  woman  is  going  to  strengthen  those 
arms  with  a  finer  love  than  ever  before.  Her 
heart  will  be  truer  than  ever  because  it  is  in 
league  with  a  clearer  head.  I  am  glad  of  these 
women's  clubs,  conventions  and  congresses  so  far 
as  they  are  training  schools  to  the  intellect,  so  far 
as  they  discipline  lives  and  put  the  tools  in 
order.  I  deplore  them  wThen  they  are  allowed  to 
widen  the  chasm  between  man  and  woman;  to 
give  her  a  contempt  for  either  his  faults  or  his 
virtues;  rather  it  is  for  her  to  pity  the  one  and 
emulate  the  other,  for  in  both  she  shares.  Woe 
to  her  if  she  grows  indifferent  to  either.  The 
fine  point  in  the  life  of  a  woman  to-day  is  to  know 
how  to  enjoy  her  intellectual  independence  and 
to  release  her  moral  and  social  nature  with  men, 
and  not  without  them.  It  is  a  sense  of  her  weak- 
ness, a  confession  of  poverty  that  has  led  her  to 
seek  these  means  of  improvement  by  co-operation 
with  her  own  sex  alone.  As  strength  and  wisdom 
.  let  her  give  to  eat  to  Adam  also.  In  so 


20  The  Women's  Uprising 

far  as  the  triumphs  of  the  next  century  are  to  be 
more  mental  than  physical,  more  spiritual  than 
material,  in  so  far  must  woman  become  more  and 
more  a  contributor  to  the  wealth  of  the  generation. 
Here  in  the  West,  at  least,  we  have  but  one 
leisure  class,  and  that  class  consists  of  women;  it 
is  a  large  and  increasing  class.  Many  a  woman 
whose  husband  is  left  at  the  hard  material  grind 
of  necessity  ten  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four  has 
her  one  or  two  afternoons  a  week  for  the  club, 
the  matinee  or  society.  What  is  she  doing  with 
her  time?  Repelled  by  a  single  "no,"  does 
she  give  up  her  attempt  to  interest  her 
husband  in  intellectual  work?  Then  a  heart- 
ache begins  because  "he  is  not  interested  in  the 
things  she  is  interested  in,"  and  the  poor  soul 
bends  herself  to  the  high  task  of  reforming  the 
world,  of  purifying  politics  and  setting  the  munici- 
pal household  in  order  all  by  herself.  If  she  had 
half  the  patience  with  her  husband  which  she  has 
with  the  world,  he  too  might  learn  to  love 
Goethe,  Dante,  or  Browning;  he  too  would  be- 
come interested  in  questions  of  education  and 
reform ;  and  together  they  might  help  the  world 
along.  Victor  Hugo's  much  quoted  saying,  "The 
nineteenth  century  is  woman's  century"  will 
prove  sadly  and  disastrously  true  unless  through 
woman  it  becomes  more  than  ever  before  human- 


The  Women's  Uprising  21 

ity's  century.  Eve  the  plaything  of  man,  Eve 
the  decoration  of  society,  has  had  her  day,  Eve 
the  leader,  the  tempter,  as  the  bible  story  teaches, 
Eve  the  partaker  of  the  precious  though  forbidden 
fruit,  is  in  many  quarters  having  her  day  now. 
Eve  the  companion  of  man,  the  co-laborer  with 
him,  the  sharer  of  his  toils,  and  on  that  account 
more  fully  the  sharer  of  his  joys,  is  to  have  her 
day.  Her  time  is  yet  to  come.  It  is  the  glad 
to-morrow  already  reddening  the  horizon.  And 
it  is  to  come  through  the  exercise  by  woman  of 
all  her  powers  in  the  same  unstinted  fashion  in 
which  man  is  permitted  to  exercise  his.  The 
subtle  sympathy  ordained  of  nature,  which  should 
and  must  exist  between  man  and  woman,  can  be 
trusted  only  when  they  meet  as  equal  partners  in 
the  business  of  life ;  equally  responsible  in  the 
home,  in  society  and  in  the  state.  There  are  no 
faculties  in  her  nature  or  in  man's  to  be  feared, 
but  all  are  to  be  trusted  and  used. 

A  most  searching  and  spiritual  study  of  the  love 
relations  of  men  and  women  under  the  changed 
and  changing  circumstances  of  this  age  of  democ- 
racy and  general  education,  is  George  Meredith's 
poem  entitled  "Modern  Love,"  the  most  modern 
of  all  modern  poems.  In  this  he  thus  pleads  for 
women: 

''More  brain,  O  Lord,  more  brain!  or  we  shall  mar 
Utterly  this  fair  garden  we  might  win." 


22  The  Women "  s  Uprising 

The  two  hearts  in  the  poem  suffer  the  deep 
tragedy  of  the  inner  soul  because 

"They  fed  not  on  the  advancing  hours  : 
Their  hearts  held  cravings  for  the  buried  days." 

It  is  only  by  this  common  look  forward,  this 
shoulder-to-shoulder  facing  the  coming  day,  that 
love  grows  more  and  more  abundantly. 

Man,  braving  the  dark,  wrestling  with  foes 
carnal  and  forces  elemental,  a  spiritual  gladiator 
in  this  storm-tossed  world,  is  a  magnificent  picture. 
What  artist  can  mold  for  us  in  one  figure  Hercu- 
les and  Apollo?  Such  an  one  is  the  giant  of 
modern  civilization.  Woman,  self-reliant,  truth- 
seeking,  open-e3red,  who  broods  on  the  problems 
of  the  state  while  she  rocks  the  cradle,  ponders 
upon  the  deep  lines  of  the  master  poets  while 
she  nurses  the  man-child  at  her  breast,  is  a  figure 
as  magnificent.  Who  will  paint  for  us  a  Madonna 
and  a  Minerva  in  one  picture,  mingling  the  sweet- 
ness of  the  one  with  the  intelligence  and  the 
sagacity  of  the  other?  Such  an  one  is  the 
mistress  of  this  age.  Who  will  trach  these  two 
to  walk  together  hand  in  hand  the  heavenly 
road  that  runs  through  earthly  places,  fringed 
with  meadows  and  grain  fields?  These  will  be 
the  home-makers  of  the  future.  These  can  learn 
to  walk  together  only  as  they  mingle  their 
ideals,  craving  no  longer  the  "buried  day"  of 


The  Women' 's  Uprising  23 

the  past,  but  "feeding  on  the  advancing  hours." 
A  man  cannot  be  worthy  of  such  a  woman  until 
his  office  is  as  clean  of  stenches  and  foul  words 
as  is  his  chamber;  until  his  thoughts  are  as  white 
as  his  wooing  linen.  And  a  woman  does  not  merit 
the  confidence  and  companionship  of  such  a  man 
until  she  is  as  persistent  in  her  earnestness  as  he 
is;  as  free  from  the  love  of  display  and  passion  for 
dress,  as  independent  of  conventionalities,  as 
economic  and  simple  in  her  tastes  as  he. 

To  put  it  grossly,  the  saloon  represents  to-day 
the  dangers  and  temptations  as  well  as  the  degra- 
dations and  humiliations  of  American  manhood. 
Take  the  same  word,  drop  out  one  of  the  "o's" 
and  give  it  a  French  pronunciation,  and  you  have 
the  snare  of  American  womanhood,  the  salon, 
where  are  aped  the  etiquettes  of  an  effete  aristocra- 
cy; where  ''Society "with  a  capital  "S"  undertakes 
here  in  democratic  America  to  erect  her  courtly 
throne;  where  the  elegance  of  one's  garments 
more  than  the  singleness  of  one's  mind,  is  the  con- 
dition of  a  successful  evening;  where  the  control- 
*  ling  genius,  the  charm  and  the  dread  of  the  attend- 
ants is  a  something  called  "Fashion"  whose  styles 
are  dictated,  not  by  art  but  by  Parisian  pattern 
givers,  or  some  equally  vulgar  representatives  of 
gold,  externality,  or  extravagant  triviality. 
Looking  toward  woman's  enfranchisement,  I 


24  The  Women's  Uprising 

think  no  congress  in  that  week  of  women's  con- 
gresses was  freighted  with  more  prophetic  promise 
than  that  of  the  dress  reformers.  Two  tyrannies 
enforce  woman's  inferior  standards  of  work  as 
compared  to  those  of  man  to-day,  for  I  think  it 
must  be  confessed  that  her  work  must  still  be 
measured  as  "woman's  work"  if  it  seeks  highest 
honors,  and  not  as  work,as  Mrs.  Browning  begged. 
These  are  the  tyrannies  of  the  dress-maker  and 
the  tyrannies  of  the  creed.  Fashion  and  ortho- 
doxy are  bulwarked  to-day  with  women.  Women 
forces  hold  the  forts  of  style  and  superstition. 
The  creeds  of  Christendom  would  stand  in  their 
naked  hideousness  before  the  world  were  they 
not  draped  with  women's  devotion  and  at  least 
outward  fidelity.  The  insincerity  of  the  modern 
woman  is  disp^ed  nowhere  so  painfully  as  in 
the  flat  contradiction  between  her  club  life  and 
her  church  life ;  in  the  one,  aggressive,  inde- 
pendent, intellectual;  in  the  other,  quiescent,  con- 
formant, sentimental.  It  is  the  scandal  of  our 
churches  that  they  are  chiefly  sustained  by 
women.  In  so  far  as  women  accept  creeds  and 
conform  to  ceremonies  which  the  intelligence  of 
men  has  outgrown,  she  concealing  the  distrust 
which  the  integrity  of  men  has  confessed,  the 
reproach  belongs  to  women.  In  so  far  as  the  same 
is  true  because  women  have  reached  up  into 


The  Women' s  Uprising  25 

nobler  heights  of  altruism  than  their  brothers, 
into  greater  love  for  things  eternal,  into  stronger 
passion  for  usefulness,  a  diviner  hunger  for  things 
infinite  and  eternal,  the  scandal  belongs  to  the 
men.  Some  women  may  support  the  churches 
in  spite  of  their  creeds,  preferring  to  be  misunder- 
stood as  to  their  intellect  than  to  be  misguided  in 
their  conduct.  When  women  have  partaken  of  this 
rarer  fruit  they  will  not  be  turned  aside  by  scoff 
or  taunt,  but  will  work  with  men  and  for  men 
until  that  religion  which  is  simple  but  profound^ 
sincere  and  earnest,  loving  because  loyal,  shall 
abound,  and  men  and  women  shall  find  their 
kindred  ties  in  the  fullness  of  mind  and  that 
wealth  of  honest  love  which  bears  the  hnman 
heart  upon  its  bosom  towards  the  infinite  love  as 
the  river  hurries  the  ship  into  the  sea. 

"For  in  the  long  years  liker  must  they  grow; 
The  man  be  more  of  woman,  she  of  man; 
He  gain  in  sweetness  and  in  moral  height, 
Nor  lose  the  wrestling  thews  that  throw  the  world; 
She  mental  breadth,  nor  fail  in  child  ward  care, 
Nor  lose  the  childlike  in  the  larger  mind; 
Till  at  the  last  she  set  herself  to  man, 
I,ike  perfect  music  unto  noble  words; 
An-l  so  these  twain,  upon  the  skirts  of  Time, 
Sit  !>ide  by  side,  full-summ'd  in  all  their  powers, 
Dispensing  harvest,  sowing  the  To-be, 
Self-reverent  tach  and  reverencing  each, 
Distinct  in  individualities, 
But  like  each  other  ev'n  as  those  who  love. 
Then  comes  the  statelier  Eden  back  to  men: 
Th«.n  reign  the  world's  great  bridals,  chaste  and  calm: 
Then  springs  the  crowning  race  of  humankind. 
May  these  things  be  !  " 


Other  Publications  of .  . 
JEN  KIN  LLOYD  JONES: 

a  Cborua  of  jfattbs 

As  heard  in  the  parliament  of  Religions.  A  book 
of  selections  showing  the  harmony  underlying  the 
religions  of  the  world,  with  an  introduction  bv 
Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones. 

PAPER,  so  CENTS;  CLOTH,  $1.50. 


Seven  (Sreat  fteacbers  of  IReliQion, 

'''The  Lovers  of  the  Light  are  One." 

A  series  of  sermon-lectures. 

I.  Moses,  the  Hebrew  Law-Giver. 

II.  Zoroaster,  the  Prophet  of  Industry. 

III.  Confucius,  the  Prophet  of  Politics. 

IV.  Buddha,  the  Light  of  Asia. 

V.  Sokrates,  the  Prophet  of  Reason. 

VI.  Jesus,  the  Founder  of  Christianity. 

VII.  Mohammed,  the  Prophet  of  Arabia. 

10  CENTS  EACH;  IN  NEAT  CASE,  75  CENTS  PER  SET. 


Hppliefc  IReligion* 

I.  A  New  Help  for  the  Drunkard. 

II.  Tobacco,  the  Second  Intoxicant. 

III.  No  Sex  in  Crime. 

IV.  Not  Instituiious  but  Homes. 

10  CENTS  EACH. 


UNITY. 

A  weekly  paper  in  the  interest  of  Freedom,  Fel- 
lowship, and  Character  in    Religion.     Edited  by 
Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones.     PER  ANNUM,  $1.00. 
All  Published  by 

THE  UNITY  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 
175  DEARBORN  ST.,  CHICAGO. 


H<a 


